New Basketball Conference Within a Week Is Predicted : Big Midwest: The league would include independents DePaul and Marquette and several teams that are now in the Metro Conference.

A new basketball conference that would include top independents DePaul and Marquette and several Metro Conference teams is expected to be formed within a week, the president of Memphis State said today.

Organizers of the new league, to be called the Big Midwest, are drawing up affiliation agreements for DePaul, Marquette, St. Louis, Alabama-Birmingham and Metro teams Memphis State and Cincinnati, Dr. Thomas Carpenter, Memphis State’s president, said.

Leaving the Metro Conference and joining the Big Midwest is “an opportunity we should move with,” Carpenter told the Commercial Appeal of Memphis in an interview published today.

Carpenter said he met Sunday with Metro Commissioner Ralph McFillen, who is trying to hold his conference together after the recent defections of Florida State and South Carolina.

“He said he’s trying to get West Virginia to agree to join the league, but I told Ralph he’s been working on that for months and hasn’t made any progress,” Carpenter said. “I’m just not going to hold my breath.”

He said he expects officials with the new conference to announce its formation soon, perhaps within a week.